David Steicke already owned one of the most diverse CVs of an Australian poker pro. He won the $100,000 Hold’em Challenge at the 2009 Aussie Millions and has captured titles in both Macau and the Philippines. He can now also claim the title of the first Aussie to final table an Epic Poker League (EPL) event after his runner-up finish to Mike McDonald at the Palms in Las Vegas yesterday.
The second EPL Main Event was an eight-handed No Limit Hold’em event that featured 97 players and a prizepool of $2,301,200. After three days of action, the final table was decided.
Erik Seidel made it back-to-back EPL Main Event final tables, Fabrice Soulier was looking to win the Main Event on his first attempt, while Mike McDonald was looking to give himself an early birthday present. Others at the star-studded final table were Steicke, Dutch Boyd, amateur Sean Getzwiller, Isaac Baron and Nam Le.
The pace of play was brisk at the beginning with three players eliminated during the first hour but slowed considerably when the stacks evened up. In the end it was the 21-year old McDonald celebrating his birthday 24 hours early as he defeated the Hong Kong-based Steicke heads-up for the title, $782,410 in prize money, and the Champion’s Ring.
Steicke began heads-up play with the chip lead but lost a major pot when his Ac-Qh was unable to improve against McDonald’s pocket sixes. The hand gave McDonald a 20:1 chip lead and he would not let it go. Steicke was able to double up twice in the match but was finally eliminated when his Ks-2c did not improve against McDonald’s Ad-4h. The next EPL event will be played at the Palms on December 9-18.
Results: EPL Season 1 Tournament Series 2 Main Event
1 Mike McDonald USD $782,410
2 David Steicke USD $506,260
3 Fabrice Soulier USD $299,160
4 Erik Seidel USD $184,100
5 Nam Le USD $126,570
6 Isaac Baron USD $92,050
7 Sean Getzwiller USD $69,040
8 Dutch Boyd USD $57,530
9 Adam Levy USD $46,020
10 Amit Makhija USD $46,020
11 Timothy West USD $46,020
12 Matthew Glantz USD $46,020
• Additional reporting www.epicpoker.com
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